THE COLUMBUS OF THE PACIFIC
scribed in detail a kangaroo shot by one
of his men. He compiled long lists of
animals, birds, and snakes; he told how
the native men punctured their noses to
insert ornamental bird bones; he described
the use of the throwing sticks and boom
erangs, and even compiled a working dic
tionary of native words.
After sailing through the strait which,
although previously navigated by Torres,
was so little known that New Guinea and
Australia still were shown on maps as a
single land body, and touching at New
Guinea, Cook put in at Batavia, there end
ing the significant part of his first voyage.
Up to this time he had not lost a single
man by sickness, but the unhealthful sea
son at Batavia cost him 7 lives, and 23
others died on the way home as the result
of dysentery contracted there.
When he arrived in England his con
quest of scurvy was acclaimed as one of
his principal achievements. The impor
tance of his work in New Zealand and
Australia was not widely recognized until
later, but the descriptions of the flowers,
birds, animals, and fish observed and
specimens of native craft collected at
tracted wide attention. Cook was pro
moted to the rank of commander and
received by the King, to whom he pre
sented a copy of his journal.
On this one voyage Cook had added
enough to his country's possessions and
future commercial empire to make his
name immortal. But that was only his
beginning.
OUTFITTING FOR A VOYAGE TO THE
ANTARCTIC
Some months before Cook's return
from his first voyage, in 1771, Dalrym
ple's Voyages was published, with a dedi
cation to the future explorer who should
discover the great southern continent.
Faith in that hypothesis was widely held.
Every time an explorer had found a head
land or sighted an island in the southern
Pacific it was put down on the map as a
part of that continent. Dalrymple's Col
lection fanned the flame of interest and
an expedition was planned to determine,
for all time, the existence of such land.
Cook was chosen for its leader.
Two ships were fitted out, the Resolu
tion and the Adventure, similar in size
and type to the Endeavour, and the frame
Photograph by Harold Fleming
AN INDIAN HOME WITH ITS TOTEM POLE:
VANCOUVER ISLAND
Twenty or more Indian tribes that roamed
Vancouver Island when Captain Cook landed
there are grouped under the general term Noot
kas. Friendly Cove, in Nootka Sound, from
which they took their name, has been called the
"home of tame Indians and wild totem poles."
The natives of the northern part of the island
probably live more nearly in their aboriginal
state than any others north of Mexico. Some
travelers profess to recognize in the tunes which
mothers croon to their babes melodic traces of
songs popular in England when Cook's expe
dition left home.
of a 20-ton vessel was put aboard each,
to be used as a lifeboat in emergency.
Cook went aboard the Resolution; Tobias
Furneaux, a valued lieutenant of Wallis,
commanded the Adventure.
Inasmuch as Cook had never heard of
vitamins, the list of edibles he included
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